The
global pandemic of abusive behavior towards children is the human species’
ultimate form of self-sabotaging behavior. Execrable as they are, out of
sheer psychic necessity we avoid adding up the individual bits and pieces
and totaling the damages; quite simply, we can no longer process all the
horror that we are confronted with.

But
this isn't about one or two instances that we can pawn off as an
aberration, it’s not just about Boy Scout leaders accused of child
pornography or clergy accused of sodomy. We are talking about human rights
abuses on a grand scale, abuses that add up to some sort of hideous
endgame where if we can't pollute, poison, nuke or bomb ourselves to
death, then we go to Plan B and make damned sure that the next generation
doesn't stand a chance of survival.

It is
beyond comprehension that we can live with ourselves in good conscience
while 640 million children in the world do not have adequate shelter and
500 million have no access to sanitation. What excuse could there possibly
be for 270 million children lacking healthcare and 90 million being
severely food-deprived? And why is it that 140 million children (mostly
girls) have never been to school and more than a million children
throughout the world work in mines?

It is
crucial to understand that these problems are not exclusive to
non-industrialized nations. In 11 out of 15 industrialized nations, for
all of our affluence and wealth, the proportion of children living in
low-income households has risen during the last decade.

Here
in the United States, one out of six children live in poverty. In the
state of Alabama, a whopping half of all public schoolchildren live in
poverty and in one county, the rate is 100%. One in eight (9.3 million)
children in the U.S. have no health insurance.

Further, according to the Children's Defense Fund's “The State of
America's Children 2004," an estimated three million American children a
year are suspected victims of child abuse and neglect, eight die from
gunfire each day and almost one out of every ten teens between the ages of
16 to 19 is a school dropout. Last year the rate of juvenile homicides in
Washington, DC doubled. It should perhaps come as no surprise, given how
we treat our own children, that the U.S. is one of only two countries that
have not ratified the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (the other is Somalia).

Armed
conflict throughout the world inflicts a profoundly heinous toll on the
lives of children. Save The Children reports that some three million
children are involved in armed conflict, of which approximately 40% are
girls, many as young as eight years of age. Most of the girls and many of
the boys have been sexually violated.

According to UNICEF, during the last decade, two million children have
been killed in conflicts, between four and five million have been
disabled. Twelve million children have been left homeless and more than
one million orphaned or separated from their parents. Ten million
children have been psychologically traumatized. In countries experiencing
conflict, children who are detained are often treated as adults. Seymour
Hersh reports that according to Pentagon documents, hundreds of children
have been held by U.S. forces in Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq and
we have learned recently about children being held at Guantanamo.
(1)

The
U.S. is certainly not the only country to incarcerate children. In a
recent interview with Justin Podur, human rights advocate Sahar Francis
explained that Israel also has a policy of incarcerating children,

“Israel does not apply the international definition of a child (under 18)
to Palestinian children, though it does apply that definition to its own
children, for the purposes of incarceration. According to the military
orders Palestinian children of 16 years old are jailed as adults. There
are no juvenile courts in the military system Palestinians are subject to
(there are in the Israeli civil system for Israeli children). The same
torture practices are used against children as against adults.”
(2)

The
toxic nature of modern weaponry has a particularly devastating impact on
the lives of children. In Vietnam, some 150,000 children born to those
exposed to Agent Orange during the war 30 years ago have been born with
birth defects. Perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel used by the
military, has recently been found in water and breast milk samples in
numerous locations in the United States. A known carcinogen, it is not yet
clear what the impact of this toxin is on the health of children.

In
Iraq, doctors report a significant rise in birth defects and childhood
cancer during the last few years, likely due to the parent's exposure to
depleted uranium and radiation and other chemical weapons. Birth defects
have increased from a rate of 11 per 100,000 births in 1989 to 116 per
100,000 in 2001. There were 650 reported cases in public hospitals between
August 2003 and May 2005. The incidence of cancer among children rose
242% in the years between 1990 and 1999. Since much more depleted uranium
was used in the recent war than in the early 1990’s and since many cancers
take several years to develop, the rates are expected to continue to rise.
In addition, the rate of malnutrition among Iraqi children under the age
of five has doubled since the U.S. invasion of Iraq according to the UN
Human Rights Commission.

It is
likely that we are only just beginning to comprehend the serious
consequences that environmental pollution and damage has for children. In
Immokalee, FL, clusters of birth defects are being found among babies born
to migrant farm workers who were exposed to pesticides. Indeed, a suit was
recently filed by a coalition of farm workers, environmentalists and
public health advocates alleging that the EPA has failed to protect
children from pesticides used on farms. Doctors also believe that as many
as 600,000 babies suffer permanent brain damage because of their mothers'
exposure to Mercury emitted from power plants that is absorbed by fish and
then consumed by pregnant women.

Earlier this year, the New York Times published a frightening list
of toxins now found regularly in breast milk. They included, PCB's,
dioxin, trichloroethylene, perchlorate, mercury, lead, benzene and arsenic
coming from sources such as paint thinner, dry-cleaning fluids, wood
preservatives, toilet deodorizers, cosmetic additives, gasoline
byproducts, rocket fuel, termite poisons, fungicides and flame retardants.
It is also now known that women who breathe air polluted with smoke and
exhaust fumes are up to 4 times more likely to have children who develop
cancer.

A
recent study also found that gender-bending phthalates (used to make
plastic more pliable) have been found in the urine of pregnant women. Boys
born to women with higher levels of four different phthalates were more
likely to have smaller penises, undescended testicles and other
feminizations similar to those seen in animals exposed to these chemicals.
The report also noted that when this occurs in male animals, levels of
aggression, as well as parenting and learning skills are affected.

Girls
throughout the world are at particular risk. According to Dr. Lynette
Dumble of the Global Sisterhood Network, some 200 million girls are
missing from expected populations, with the worst occurrences taking place
in countries such as India and China, victims of female feticide and
infanticide. Further, hundreds of thousands of girls have been trafficked
throughout the world, sold for body parts and sexually and economically
enslaved. (3)

As I
have sifted through the evidence of our collective irresponsibility, I
keep asking myself what it says when all the sordid pieces are added
together, and praying for some divine insight as to how to end these
tragedies. I have two wonderful and precious children whom I love
fiercely, and for whom I would do anything necessary to protect their
well-being. If anything happened to them, it would be a wound from which I
would never recover.

But
the imperative for ending abusive behavior towards the world’s children
goes beyond moral or emotional repugnancy, it’s also a lousy investment
policy. Children are the future of our species, if we do not care for and
nurture them, we humans have little to look forward to.